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Anglo-Portuguese chest on stand gathers $74,150 at Weschler sale

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Saturday, May 16, Weschler’s auction of European and American Furniture and Decorations including Asian Works of Art ended the season on a high note when an Indo-Portuguese brass mounted bone and ebony inlaid hardwood chest-on-stand went on the auction block. Cataloged as Anglo-Indian, the intricately decorated chest-on-stand had a $1,000-$1,500 presale estimate but sold for $74,150. The sale offered 373 lots, with over 79 percent of the property selling.

Other European furniture highlights included a 17th century James I parcel polychrome oak refectory table, which sold for $3,055; a George II walnut porringer-top folding games table, circa 1740-1750, brought $2,585; a late 19th century George III style mahogany breakfront-bookcase realized a within-estimate $8,225; a pair of Victorian ormolu mounted satinwood marquetry circassian walnut serpentine low corner cabinets, in the Louis XVI style, sold to an Internet bidder for $3,995; and selling slightly below estimate was a Louis XV-XVI transitional ormolu mounted marquetry tulipwood and kingwood commode that brought $6,462. Also of note in European decorations, a Swedish Neoclassical style giltwood cartel clock realized $1,292 and a third quarter 18th century Meissen reticulated chestnut basket-on-stand fetched $3,525.

Silver offerings fared well and included a Victorian silver centerpiece bowl that realized $25,850; a pair of George III weighted silver candlesticks brought $3,525; a pair of German silver and ivory figures of knights by B. Neresheimer & Sons sold to an Internet bidder for $5,640; an American silver egg boiler by William Gale & Son, New York, realized $4,935; and a Hyde & Goodrich silver jug, New Orleans, fetched $2,232 against a $600-$800 pre-sale estimate.

Highlighting American decorative arts was a silver plate fireman’s memorial with folk art frame from the American Hose Company No. 19, New York, dated 1852, which sold above estimate for $15,275. Additionally, two 18th-19th century leather-bound deed books from Virginia and Maryland sold for $9,400, and an American watercolor and silk needlepoint picture of Moses in the Bulrushes brought $1,762.

Asian works of art were highlighted by a pair of Japanese earthenware vases from the Meiji period (1868-1912), which fetched $11,750; a Japanese hardwood Okimono of an ascetic Sennin with a Shishi also from the Meiji period which more than doubled its high-end estimate to sell for $1,292; a 20th century Chinese mottled green jade table screen of Guanyin in a grotto sold for $2,820 and a Chinese Huanghuali coffer, sold to an Internet bidder for $21,150 against a $1,000-$2,000 estimate.

Among the selection of fine art was a lithograph with hand coloring after John James Audubon (American 1785-1851), Lynx Rufus. Guldenstaed, Common American Wildcat, Male, Pl. I, No. I, which brought $6,110 and two watercolors and graphite on paper by American artist Charles Wardlow Norton (1848-1901) of the The American Barkentines (sailingship) “James Couch” and “Annie Vought,” which realized $2,585 and $4,700, respectively.

Weschler’s next auction of European and American furniture and decorations including Asian Works of art will be Oct. 17, with a consignment deadline of Aug. 28. For more information, call 202-628-1281 or visit www.weschlers.com.